iPhone 4.0 to remove controversial "rate on delete" prompt

The next revision of the iPhone OS will remove the rating prompt that users see when they delete an app from their device.

The finding, noted by Arnold Kim of MacRumors, erases a behavior first implemented in iPhone 2.2, shortly after Apple opened the App Store.

The initial intent of the prompt, which asked users to assign a one to five star rating for the app, was to increase the number of feedback ratings in the App Store. Users could also decline to rate the app (as shown below on iPad).

However, developers complained that the prompt negatively skewed their ratings, as it added more low ratings from users who didn't like the app, but didn't do anything to encourage high approval ratings from those who kept the app and used it frequently.

Keeping on top of App Store reviews

A year ago, Apple modified its ratings policies in iTunes to prevent users from entering ratings for apps unless they'd actually downloaded them.

The company subsequently removed large numbers of ratings from people who had never even tried the apps they had rated. Removed ratings were often either from users protesting over pricing or, occasionally, from developers padding their reviews with positive rankings from dummy accounts.

The company followed up a few weeks later by tying reviews to the revision of the app, a feature which allowed users to filter out old complaints related to problems that had since been fixed.

The current way of doing things ABSOLUTELY skews ratings downward into hell, because why else would you be deleting an app unless you didn't like it and didn't want to use it anymore?

The very first time it prompted me to assign a star rating to a program that I had just deleted because I didn't like it, I thought, "Uh-oh. This can't be good for developers' ratings." And then I proceeded to give the app a 1-star rating because it was junk.

Yet the programs that I love, and which have been living happily on my iPhone for months or years, have never prompted me for ratings, which would all get 4 or 5 star ratings from me.

Although I have taken the extra effort of going back to the app store and visiting the apps themselves to give them positive ratings (and reviews).

For some reason, I wasn't even sure the rating was going to iTunes Store, the little box doesn't say so directly. For a little while, I thought it goes back to my iTunes app like how songs are rated for local use. I use those ratings as one of my smart playlist conditionals, which in turn determines how often songs get synced to my phone. That aside, there is no local equivalent ratings, so I had to assume it was being sent.

I think the general adage is that people that had a bad experience tend to put more work into telling others about their experience as it is, which tends to skew the perception of the product. Making it that easy to post a negative probably doubly compounds the problem.